Which websites for discount flights in Europe?

Hi. I live in the US and feel very comfortable finding good deals from US based carriers. I enjoy visiting Europe, but I am less familiar with the booking websites for discount flights within Europe. Can anybody tell me their favored ways to find good deals on the continent? My next booking need will be Heathrow to Barcelona one way in late October, but even if they do not help with that specific flight, additionally I would like to bookmark websites for future reference.

Hi. I live in the US and feel very comfortable finding good deals from US based carriers. I enjoy visiting Europe, but I am less familiar with the booking websites for discount flights within Europe. Can anybody tell me their favored ways to find good deals on the continent? My next booking need will be Heathrow to Barcelona one way in late October, but even if they do not help with that specific flight, additionally I would like to bookmark websites for future reference.

Try this http://www.whichbudget.com/

Keep in mind that budget airlines limit frills and bagagge, so you must be very careful to research this.

Enjoy!!!

Hi. I live in the US and feel very comfortable finding good deals from US based carriers. I enjoy visiting Europe, but I am less familiar with the booking websites for discount flights within Europe. Can anybody tell me their favored ways to find good deals on the continent? My next booking need will be Heathrow to Barcelona one way in late October, but even if they do not help with that specific flight, additionally I would like to bookmark websites for future reference.

An interesting place to look is actually Wikipedia, for the airports in questions. Almost all airport pages have a list of which and where they serve. For example from the Heathrow page on Wikipedia you can quickly determine that only BA have a direct flight. That being said, are you limited to LHR? London has 5 airports (LGW,STN,LUT and LCY being the others); and some other airports like BHX and SOU are only a short train ride (under 2 hrs) away.

Another website to check: http://www.low-cost-airline-guide.com/

Heathrow is not he best airport for finding low cost flights. Most of the these will be from other London airports. That said, BA's rates for your route are quite reasonable.

My next booking need will be Heathrow to Barcelona one way in late October, but even if they do not help with that specific flight, additionally I would like to bookmark websites for future reference.

For other flights, try http://www.skyscanner.net. But remember that this site will only give you headline fares, and that flights with low headline prices on "low-fare" airlines often end up being much more expensive than flying on BA or another similar airline.

Ridiculous prices (and routes) from Atlanta to Rome. Any suggestions? We need to go to Rome in June 2012 and I know it's early to check, but I would like to set up some sort of alerts, in hopes of getting something under the $1290 price I'm seeing right now...and the $1290 is Atlanta to Newark to Lisbon Portugal to Rome....YIKES :eek:. Never flown to Europe so I'm having a little bit of a meltdown. The cruise is booked and we would like to spend a few pre-cruise days in Rome.

Ridiculous prices (and routes) from Atlanta to Rome. Any suggestions?

I'm not sure what's ridiculous about $1,300 round-trip to fly across the Atlantic. It's a bit higher than in previous years (but so are all flights), and many people do manage to get fares for under $1,000. But that price is hardly "ridiculous".

If you want a chance to get a lower fare, you'll probably be better off waiting. Many airlines will not yet have released their cheaper fares so early. Air fare pricing does not necessarily reward the early bird, as there is neither commercial nor moral merit in it.

Ridiculous prices (and routes) from Atlanta to Rome. Any suggestions? We need to go to Rome in June 2012 and I know it's early to check, but I would like to set up some sort of alerts, in hopes of getting something under the $1290 price I'm seeing right now...and the $1290 is Atlanta to Newark to Lisbon Portugal to Rome....YIKES :eek:. Never flown to Europe so I'm having a little bit of a meltdown. The cruise is booked and we would like to spend a few pre-cruise days in Rome.

It's not early to check; most of June 2012 is open for booking.

This is much more than I've ever paid for a TATL, but I don't find it ridiculous for June. You don't give your dates, but I just randomly picked a few for June 2012, and I find nothing for roundtrips as low as $1290. Where are you finding that fare, and on what airline is this? That's strange routing.

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An interesting place to look is actually Wikipedia, for the airports in questions. Almost all airport pages have a list of which and where they serve. For example from the Heathrow page on Wikipedia you can quickly determine that only BA have a direct flight. That being said, are you limited to LHR? London has 5 airports (LGW,STN,LUT and LCY being the others); and some other airports like BHX and SOU are only a short train ride (under 2 hrs) away.

I made a bit of a mistake here, London really has 6 airports, now that EasyJet have announced significant service from SEN/London Southend

We do not normally use consolidators but we did yesterday. We booked Calgary-Istanbul return in mid Sept. Prices seem to had subsided a little. Vayama got us there for just under 1200 each on KLM with a stop in Amsterdam-this is not too bad for a Canadian fare as they tend to be higher. Good connections, good times. I am ok with it as we are going a little early and there are quite a few backup flights from Amsterdam-Istanbul should something go wrong. We have never been on KLM before-we our preference in Lufthans so we will see.

Choice air was $1575-in the same ballpark that I could get by booking direct with the airlines.

London has 5 airports (LGW,STN,LUT and LCY being the others); and some other airports like BHX and SOU are only a short train ride (under 2 hrs) away.

I made a bit of a mistake here, London really has 6 airports, now that EasyJet have announced significant service from SEN/London Southend

Actually you made another mistake since I think you meant LTN. Surprising in light of this thread http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1433499

You really need to watch the discount airlines in Europe. Sometimes they can actually be more expensive when you include baggage fees and extra transport costs (sometimes) to get the airports. My son recently did LHR-Athens. BA was not only his cheapest fare but he did not have to pay a baggage surcharge and getting to LHR was faster and cheaper that getting to Gatwick or Luton.

I've been watching the fares on Easyjet, but from BCN to London. I found them very reasonable to/from Stansted. You might have to juggle you date out (hotel for an extra night on one end or the other), because it depends on the day of the week as to what the price is.

I have used Easyjet before, and it's like flying Southwest. I usually compare RyanAir.com and Easyjet.com.

Be prepared to suck it up on luggage allowances, and there are add-on fees, too. Go all the way through the booking process to get the final cost with add-ons for comparison, but don't buy until you know it's what you want.

As a UK resident would like to warn you that Ryanair have a lot of "extras" when it comes to pricing - be very careful to calculate the total price before you make your decision. They are also known for their habit of cancelling flights at short notice and with very little reason.

As a UK resident would like to warn you that Ryanair have a lot of "extras" when it comes to pricing - be very careful to calculate the total price before you make your decision. They are also known for their habit of cancelling flights at short notice and with very little reason.

Yes, as I said, there are luggage and add-on fees. I should have also stated that I never schedule the last flight for the day, so there are other options available. RyanAir is good for a cheap way to get around Europe, and if I'm on vacation I'm not on a tight schedule. I wouldn't use RyanAir to make a connection back to the US, but it's great to get into or out of the UK.

My preference, however, is EasyJet.

I have used both Flybe and Easyjet several times. Yep they have all kinds of add on fees, credit card surcharges, booking fees (for their own web site bookings :) ), luggage, seat assignment etc etc. Size of bag is critical for carry ons, so is weight.

But, if you get on the initial booking timeframe, there can be give away rates. :)

I like Cheapoair because it lets you mix up airlines for different legs of your trip rather than committing you to one airline for the entire trip. I once got a ticket on Cheapoair for an American Airlines and it was cheaper than what I could have booked it for on directly on the American Airlines website. Not sure how that happened because most of the airlines say that their own websites have the lowest airfare, but it happened for me that one time.

Ridiculous prices (and routes) from Atlanta to Rome. Any suggestions? We need to go to Rome in June 2012 and I know it's early to check, but I would like to set up some sort of alerts, in hopes of getting something under the $1290 price I'm seeing right now...and the $1290 is Atlanta to Newark to Lisbon Portugal to Rome....YIKES :eek:. Never flown to Europe so I'm having a little bit of a meltdown. The cruise is booked and we would like to spend a few pre-cruise days in Rome.

You should be able to get better than that. Try Delta. I just booked a flight for 5 weeks out on Delta nonstop out of JFK to Rome for $1,500. Not cheap, but better off than paying $1,290 for a stop in Portugal.

I like Cheapoair because it lets you mix up airlines for different legs of your trip rather than committing you to one airline for the entire trip. I once got a ticket on Cheapoair for an American Airlines and it was cheaper than what I could have booked it for on directly on the American Airlines website. Not sure how that happened because most of the airlines say that their own websites have the lowest airfare, but it happened for me that one time.

Because you were not purchasing a published fare ticket, as you would from an airline directly. You were buying a consolidator ticket, which has MANY more restrictions than a standard published fare ticket.

When things go normally, a consolidator ticket is just like a published ticket. It's when things go pear-shaped that the differences matter.

In addition, you want to well research whatever consolidator you buy from. There can be some nasty surprises out there. Do some searches in this forum for "consolidator" and for the purveyor mentioned - you will see what I mean.

You should be able to get better than that. Try Delta. I just booked a flight for 5 weeks out on Delta nonstop out of JFK to Rome for $1,500. Not cheap, but better off than paying $1,290 for a stop in Portugal.

Stay away from this company. they take your money but have zero service. Two of 3 flights booked with them were cancelled months prior to our trip. On one they never informed, on the other they left a phone message on our home phone in the USA to let us know our flight the NEXT morning was cancelled from Prague to Warsaw!! We had to book replacement flights at much more money on the fly at the airport to get from Venice to Budapest. The carrier we were booked on no longer flew that route!! I called the carrier and they had informed CheapoAir in February that this August flight was cancelled, still had the funds and were returning them to cheapoair that day. Replacement flights, which we were lucky to get on the fly, cost us twice as much. It took 2 months and numerous threats of legal action to get our refund from CheapoAir. I do not believe they have any kind of an efficient or worthwhile operation. it sounds like everyone you talk to works from home (in India, perhaps?) and no one can make a decision. We were able to rebook our flight from Prague to Warsaw. After the Venice fiasco I contacted Czech Air to confirm our flight. They emailed me that the flight was cancelled in march and cheapoair was informed!! Fortunately our concierge was able to rebook us for later the same day and for the funds Czech Air was holding. My advice to you is to STAY AWAY. THE WHOLE OPERATION IS QUESTIONABLE AND MAY EVEN BE FRAUDULANT!! AS MOM SAYS, YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR.

Stay away from this company. they take your money but have zero service. Two of 3 flights booked with them were cancelled months prior to our trip. On one they never informed, on the other they left a phone message on our home phone in the USA to let us know our flight the NEXT morning was cancelled from Prague to Warsaw!! We had to book replacement flights at much more money on the fly at the airport to get from Venice to Budapest. The carrier we were booked on no longer flew that route!! I called the carrier and they had informed CheapoAir in February that this August flight was cancelled, still had the funds and were returning them to cheapoair that day. Replacement flights, which we were lucky to get on the fly, cost us twice as much. It took 2 months and numerous threats of legal action to get our refund from CheapoAir. I do not believe they have any kind of an efficient or worthwhile operation. it sounds like everyone you talk to works from home (in India, perhaps?) and no one can make a decision. We were able to rebook our flight from Prague to Warsaw. After the Venice fiasco I contacted Czech Air to confirm our flight. They emailed me that the flight was cancelled in march and cheapoair was informed!! Fortunately our concierge was able to rebook us for later the same day and for the funds Czech Air was holding. My advice to you is to STAY AWAY. THE WHOLE OPERATION IS QUESTIONABLE AND MAY EVEN BE FRAUDULANT!! AS MOM SAYS, YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR.

Not sure why you pulled up this old thread, but did you never look at your reservation on the airline's webpage that entire time? You didn't need to make any threats to Cheapoair. All you had to do was a charge back on your credit card if you did not receive what you paid for. You got your money back, so I don't see where any fraud was committed, and even most airlines outsource their customer service to other countries.

I agree that many people should never consider booking with a ticket consolidator. You would have been better off booking directly with the airline. Just keep in mind that's no guarantee you will be notified about flight changes/cancellations, etc. People should check their itineraries once in a while.

I agree that many people should never consider booking with a ticket consolidator. You would have been better off booking directly with the airline. Just keep in mind that's no guarantee you will be notified about flight changes/cancellations, etc. People should check their itineraries once in a while.

Even booking directly with the airline doesn't always guarantee a change of flight notification. Delta changed our LAX-HNL nonstop to a LAX-Salt Lake City-HNL route. I had to call them up and tell them I would miss my cruise if they booked us on that route, and to please put us back on the nonstop.

I agree, checking the reservations is a good idea. As a matter of fact I haven't looked at my December flights in a few weeks.......gotta go do that.

I have booked with cheapoair a few times. They frequently show up on mobissimo when I look for flights.